


Métamorphose

by Leodine



Series: sometimes the bad guys are smart, too [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: But not quite, Gen, Will Byers Can't Catch a Break, Will Byers-centric, it is however all about Will Byers as all my fics should be, the story is told from another point of view
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 16:15:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21079679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leodine/pseuds/Leodine
Summary: It is there out of a reasonable bargain: you survive in that place, you come back a little different.





	Métamorphose

At first it isn’t there.

How could it be?

He is a normal boy – well, normal would be a stretch, he is different, just not the kind that has been touched by it – and he leads a rather normal life. He lives with his mother, and his brother (and once upon a time, his father was there too). He has fun with his friends, loves with no limits even though his life isn’t the easiest.

But one day, he gets taken.

And that is where it starts seeping in.

There isn’t a lot of it that manages to crawl inside, but the air there is corrupted, and he is such a richer, better place to grow in. He is a living thing, with soft flesh, hard bones and a harder will. He is strong, so strong that he lives through this, and brings it back with him. It is not a clandestine passenger, not really. It is there out of a reasonable bargain: you survive in that place, you come back a little different.

He is no stranger to this.

At first, it burrows deep inside of him, trying to exist in a world where it isn’t welcome. Every element in this new place is wrong. His dimension is nothing like it knows, too bright, too warm, too much. It loves emptiness and misses the cold; it digs deeper until it finds them somewhere, delighting in their presence.

He is strong and rejects the biggest part of it. The conscious part of it. The one that would have quickly destroyed him. It doesn’t care, just tries to survive now, staying dormant in order to gain strength.

It all passes quickly, then. The main, powerful part, the evil one, wants him. The visions come, and when _he_ gets a hold of him, fully this time, _he_ finds the smaller part of _himself_, cowardly hiding in between matter. _He_ disregards it, the host being more important.

But he is surrounded by strong and powerful people, who would do anything to protect him. They burn _him_ out, but it remains. It’s holding on tight, despite not really being alive, not yet.

_He_ is never really gone. Strikes again. The host is strong, but his resolve falters during the summer; there are dark thoughts stemming from somewhere in his mind. This might be its fault. Nothing is really clear when it is a part of him now, still not really present, tangible, but existing. Every time _he_ appears, every time he senses _him_, it feels its hold strengthening. It’s there to stay.

_He_ makes the mistake of targeting her, too. _He_ fears her, fears what she did to _him_ months before. It, however, knows better. There is no reason to attack her; she is more ally than foe, despite the mixed feelings he tends to have when she is around. She is powerful enough to stand against _him_. It won’t try to stop her.

They defeat _him_, once more. It doesn’t know why _he_ has become an enemy now, but this is a reality that sinks deep. Maybe this infection goes both ways.

It is growing now, slowly at first, the way the first colonies of bacteria gradually appear after an inoculation. The way rot is barely noticeable on a ripe fruit at first, but its filaments dig under the skin, present yet invisible. Until it accelerates. Taking over the whole surface, eating the nutritive medium.

It does so, but no one notices. They destroy its place, but now it lives within him, and its home has changed. Its home is changing; instead of breaking down and being swallowed whole, its home mutates.

But no one notices.

It spreads, everywhere it can. It loves emptiness, but he isn’t empty. He is full of life, full of warmth and working organs and pulsing veins and multiplying cells, but it needs the space. It compromises. It’s not the void it seeks anymore, it doesn’t shy away from his fullness. It takes it all in, progressively.

It’s not really it, anymore, either. It has grown through so many layers of him it is now him, in a strange way. It’s dispersing, regrouping, gaining strength. Making him stronger in return.

They mix up eerily, it and him. He doesn’t notice it, but when he does, he smothers the feeling. It knows. His propensity to hide things from others does helps; but it has grown past the point of no return. His decisions might already be ailed. It cannot be chased away.

Someone notices after a long while, after it has taken its rightful place; a boyfriend. It doesn’t really care about the consequently tainted relationship, and he doesn’t either.

She notices too, but too late. She doesn’t talk until it’s too late, and he’s gotten used to hiding too much, veiling his answers behind cryptic words. It’s easier that way. She could have done something to it before, it knows, it has observed the way she had fought _him_. She’s not a threat anymore, and it is relieved. They both are.

It grows, stretches, fills every space it cans. But it doesn’t take over. Not really. It is a team effort, and he is still his own person. While it grows, it fuses with him, unravels him and creeps in, everywhere it can. They merge, a slow, inevitable process that it welcomes. He welcomes it too.

They become one, and its role has been fulfilled.

It is no more, yet it is more than ever.

He is there still, but not solely him. He isn’t the same.

This doesn’t upset him.

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant as a little bit of fun to explore a theory that I discovered on kaypeace21's tumblr, who has a lot of awesome things to say about Will (and his powers). It is meant to be vague, as it is an introduction of sorts to an au where this theory happens. Have I finished writing the fics set in the au? No. Are they bad? Yes.


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